Been listening to the C86 compilation quite a bit as of late. For the unfamiliar:
C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine New Musical Express (NME) in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from independent labels of the time. As a phrase, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a musical genre best remembered for its devotion to Byrdsy guitars and fey melodies even though other musical styles were represented on the tape. Inspired by the DIY ideals of punk, it evolved into one of the most derided UK music genres in the last thirty years.
Ex-NME staffer Andrew Collins summed up C86 by dubbing it “the most indie thing to have ever existed.” Bob Stanley; a Melody Maker journalist in the late 1980s and band member of Saint Etienne similarly claimed in a 2006 interview that C86 represented the: “beginning of indie music…It’s hard to remember how underground guitar music and fanzines were in the mid 80s; DIY ethics and any residual punk attitudes were in isolated pockets around the country and the C86 comp and gigs brought them together in an explosion of new groups.”
Tracklist:
Side One
1. Primal Scream / Velocity Girl
2. The Mighty Lemon Drops / Happy Head
3. The Soup Dragons / Pleasantly Surprised
4. The Wolfhounds / Feeling So Strange Again
5. The Bodines / Therese
6. Mighty Mighty / Law
7. Stump / Buffalo
8. Bogshed / Run to the Temple
9. A Witness / Sharps And Sticks
10. The Pastels / Breaking Lines
11. The Age of Chance / From Now On This Will Be Your God
Side Two
1. Shop Assistants / It’s Up To You
2. Close Lobsters / Firestation Towers
3. Miaow / Sport Most Royal
4. Half Man Half Buiscuit / I Hate Nerys Hughes
5. The Servants / Transparent
6. The MacKenzies / Big Jim(there’s No Pubs In Heaven)
7. Big Flame / New Way(Quick Wash And Brush Up…)
8. We’ve Got Fuzzbox… / Console Me
9. McCarthy / Celestial City
10. The Shrubs / Bullfighter Blues
11. The Wedding Present / This Boy Can Wait
You can download the album here. A muxtape of the first side is available here.